to home (to) go, with the slaughtered-slain, to approach (his) dwelling. 1. 246. Guth-rine gold-wlanc, græs-moldan træd, Warrior (Beowulf) bright in gold, Nu her thára banena, byre nat hwylces, frætwum hremig, on flet gæth; morthres gylpeth, 1. 3758. and thone maththum byreth, Now of those banes (murderers), in (the) hall goeth; boasteth of the murder, and the jewel (i. e. a sword) beareth, that thou by right shouldest command (or wield). secan wolde; ac se feond, salwig fethera, secan nolde. Ed. Thorpe, p. 86. 1. 30. Then after some days (he) let swarth fly, raven over high flood. Noah reckoned (told) that he from need him seek would; but the fiend, sallowy of feathers, would not seek (him). 33. 5. It will be remembered that the AngloSaxon "blac" was equivalent to our black and yellow. [Ger. bleich, pale, hence Angl. to bleach.] [In Beowulf, 1. 3599. we have "thæt hræfn blaca," which Mr. Kemble renders "the pale raven." In the Glossary to Beowulf, vol. i. p. 250, he refers "pada" to the Gothic Páida, tunica; and points out the following epithets as formed with it: "salo-pád," and "salwig-pad," in the Exeter Book, fol. 87 b.; and "salwigpada" Judith, p. 24; as also in the text above: qui vestem fulvum gerit :—which then would be dun-coated, tawny-vested. See also the Glossary to Thorpe's Analecta.-R. T.] * [salowig padan (sallow of coat) is certainly an epithet of the sweartan hræfn in the next line. There is no occasion, in such a composition, to suppose, with Mr. Price, any transposition. See n. 29.—TH.] [pada here may signify toad (paddock) the bufo of Hen. Hunt.-TH.] 30 And the hoarse toad, T. And the hoarse vulture, I. The latter version is totally without authority. The former is justified in part by our vocabularies, though evidently at variance with the context. The Cotton MSS. Tiberius A. vi. reads haso (the nom. case), which shows this word to have had a twofold termination: haso and haswe-like salo and salwe, fealo and fealwe. The nomenclature of Anglo-Saxon colours must necessarily be very obscure; but as we find the public road called "fealwe stræte" (Beowulf); and the passage made for the Israelites over the Red Sea " haswe strada' (Cædmon), the version of the present text cannot be materially out. 1 Maththum must not be confounded with mathmum, the dative case plural of mathm. eorlas árhwáte**, eard begeaton. earls [men] exceeding bold [keen], obtained (the) earth. [a territory or dwelling :-" Eard: " not "eorthe."] bours. In old German poetry every thing translated from a foreign language was said to be taken from the Wälsche (Welsh), and the Pays de Vaud is still called the Walliser-land. The following singular passage is taken from Hartmann von Awe's romance of Iwain (and Gawain,) where Welsch indisputably means English. Er was Hartman genant, and was ain Awere, der bracht dise mere zü Tisch als ich han vernommen, do er usz Engellandt was commen, da er vil zit was gewessen, hat ers an den Welschen buchen gelesen. He was named Hartman, and was an Auwer, who brought this tale into German as I have heard, after he came out of England, where he had been a long time, (and where) he had read it in the Welsh books. 34 The earls excelling in honour, T. most valiant earls, I. In Anglo-Saxon "hwate" and 66 cene are synonymous, meaning both keen and bold. It is usual to consider "arhwate" and many other similar expressions as compounded of "are," honour; an error which has arisen from not sufficiently attending to the distinction between the substantive and the preposition "ar." In such combinations as "ar-wurthe," "ar-fæst," "ar-hwate," "ær-god," the preposition is prefixed in the sense of excess, as in the comparative degree of adjectives it is subjoined. "Arwurthe," venerable, is from "ar-wurthian," to esteem greatly: and the following passage from Beowulf exhibits one of the combinations above cited, in a sense which cannot be mistaken. (á) scolde eorl wesan be exceeding good as Escher was. The most simple and perhaps original idea attached to this preposition (of such extensive use in all the dialects of the North) was priority, from whence by an easy transition it came to mean priority in point of magnitude, and thence in point of excellence (honour). The analogous expressions prime good, prime strong, prime ripe, &c., may be heard in every province. The compounds "ar-full," pro pitious, "ar-leas," impious, are formed from the substantive "ár," a word of very extensive signification, and which may be rendered goodness, kindness, benefit, care, favour, &c. Thá spræc guth-cyning, to Abrahame; him was ara thearf. Then spoke the war-king, prince of Sodom, whose warriors were felled, to Abraham; to him was need of kindnesses. Cadmon 46, 2. It is impossible to translate " secgum gefylled" literally, "without causing obscurity. [Mr. Thorpe reads "befylled," and renders it "of his warriors bereft," and "ara" he translates wealth. p. 128.] Æla frea beorhte, folces scyppend, gemilse thin mod, me to gode, sile thyne are, thyne earminge. O bright Lord, creator of (the) folk, soften thy mind, me to good, ed with the preceding extracts, will be too obvious to require any comment. The substitution of o for á was evidently the work of the Normans. The Anglo-Saxon á was pronounced like the Danish aa, the Swedish å, or our modern o in more, fore, &c. The strong intonation given to the words in which it occurred would strike a Norman ear as indicating the same orthography that marked the long syllables of his native tongue, and he would accordingly write them with an e final. It is from this cause that we find hár, sár, hát, bát, wá, án, bán, stán, &c. written hore (hoar), sore, hote (hot), bote (boat), woe, one, bone, stone, some of which have been retained. The same principle of elongation was extended to all the AngloSaxon vowels that were accentuated; such as réc, reke (reek), líf, life, gód, gode (good), scúr, shure (shower); and hence the majority of those e's mute upon which Mr. Tyrwhitt has expended so much unfounded speculation.-This subject will be resumed in a supplementary volume, in an examination of that ingenious critic's" Essay upon the Language and Versification of Chaucer." [The passage in Rask's Postscriptum referred to in some of the added notes (p. lxx. &c.) is the following, and is given here as bearing testimony to the talents and learning of Mr. Price.-R. T.] "Ne nuperrimus quidem Editor Wartoni Hist. Poeseos Anglorum excipiendus videtur, etsi vir doctissimus, subsidiis egregiis ex Scandinavia nostra adjutus, multa sane contulit ad Poemata AngloSaxonica melius explicanda: v. c. in notis ad Poema de prælio Brunanburgensi (t. i p. 91.) dennade' vel, ut Gibson habet, 'dynode' recte per Isl. 'dundi' explicavit, verbis usus Björnonis Haldorsonii, in Lexico, ubi sub 1. pers. eg dyn' facile invenitur; sed 'geæðele' (ib. p. 90.) haud invenit, itaque per apelo' (i. e. æpelo) nobilitas exposuit, quum tamen 'æþelo' [Fæge: : p. lxxi. note 8. gen. fem. sit, et a 'geæðele' neut. gen. diversum; scribitur enim hoc (ge, more Isl. abjecto) Islandis 'eðli,' et a Björnone æque recte natura, indoles, genius. Sic 'hond-rond' (Ib. p. 89.) per Angl. hand round exposuit, quum manuale scutum vertere debuisset; 'rond' scil. nihil est aliud quam Isl. 'rönd' (quemadmodum etiam hond,' Isl. hönd' dicitur), quod apud eundem Björnonem recte vertitur clypeus militaris, nec quicquam sane cum round Angl. commune habet."-Rask's Anglo-Saxon Grammar, Mr. Thorpe's Edition, p. Iviii.] Hickes has well explained the word "Fæge," Thes. 114, where he instances "slegefæge," yet modern translators have been strangely at a loss with regard to it. In the same sense we have also "veich, veige," in the Heldenbuch and Nibelungen Lied; "veegh, veygh," in Kilian; "feigr," mox moribundus, in the Edda; "feigd," mortis vicinitas inopina, Biorn Haldorson, Gl. Isl.; “væie” in Layamon; and “feeg, feig” in the Frisic Glossary of Outzen, who says that Wachter is mistaken in supposing the word to be obsolete, as it is still in use in Friesland and Denmark.-R. T.] [The following descriptions of battles will show how much the characteristics of the earlier Saxon poetry continued to prevail even till the reign of king John. It is from the Brut of Layamon, (supposed to be of that date,) the publication of which by the Society of Antiquaries, under the superintendence of Sir F. Madden, will be a service of the highest value to English philology.-R.T. To-gadere heo tuhten, & lathliche fuhten: hardeliche heuwen, helmes ther gullen starcliche to-stopen mid steles egge. Alle dæi ther ilæste fææht mid tham mæste, a thet that thustere niht to-dælde heore muchele filt. Læien a ba halue cnihtes to-heouwen. 1. 9794. Tha ferden heom imetten, volden to grunde, ther wes muchel blod gute; brustlede scæftes, beornes ther veollen. 1. 20073. VOL. I. ON THE INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING INTO ENGLAND. DISSERTATION II. THE irruption of the northern nations into the western empire, about the beginning of the fourth century, forms one of the most interesting and important periods of modern history. Europe, on this great event, suffered the most memorable revolutions in its government and manners; and, from the most flourishing state of peace and civility, became on a sudden, and for the space of two centuries, the theatre of the most deplorable devastation and disorder. But among the disasters introduced by these irresistible barbarians, the most calamitous seems to have been the destruction of those arts which the Romans still continued so successfully to cultivate in their capital, and which they had universally communicated to their conquered provinces. Towards the close of the fifth century, very few traces of the Roman policy, jurisprudence, sciences, and literature remained. Some faint sparks of knowledge were kept alive in the monasteries; and letters and the liberal arts were happily preserved from a total extinction during the confusions of the Gothic invaders, by that slender degree of culture and protection which they received from the prelates of the church and the religious communities. But notwithstanding the famous academy of Rome with other lite Α Theodosius the younger, in the year 425, founded an academy at Constantinople, which he furnished with able professors of every science, intending it as a rival institution to that at Rome. Gianon. Hist. Napl. ii. ch. vi. sect. 1. noble library had been established at Constantinople by Constantius and Valens before the year 380, the custody of which was committed to four Greek and three Latin antiquaries or curators. It contained sixty thousand volumes. Zonaras relates, that among other treasures in this library, there was a roll one hun dred feet long, made of a dragon's gut or intestine, on which Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were written in golden letters. See Bibl. Histor. Literar. Select. &c. lenæ, 1754. p. 164. seq. Literature flourished in the eastern empire, while the western was depopulated by the Goths; and for many centuries afterwards. The Turks destroyed one hundred and twenty thousand volumes, I suppose in the imperial library, when they sacked Constantinople in the year 1454. Hop. De Græc. Illustr. ii. 1. p. 192. |